


Beneath the Iron Mask

by SweetShireen



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Civil War AU, F/M, Marvel Universe, and Hermione is Captain America, it sounds ridiculous but I love it, marvel AU, where Harry is Iron Man
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-22
Updated: 2020-01-22
Packaged: 2021-02-27 12:06:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 967
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22366867
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SweetShireen/pseuds/SweetShireen
Summary: The Iron Man learns the hard way to never trust anyone, keep a false persona to deal with the public, and to always keep his heart closed.Captain America throws a wrench in his plans.
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Harry Potter
Comments: 19
Kudos: 97
Collections: HMS Harmony Discord Drabbles





	Beneath the Iron Mask

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to Arishatistic for making the hilarious edits.

**Beneath the Iron Mask**

Harry's mother, Lily Potter, took what was originally the very successful Potter Enterprises and, with her husband by her side, made it the most influential technology conglomerate in the world. Harry should have been proud of his parents, but the attack on October 31st that left him a teen orphan, often makes him wish they had never been so famous and powerful. Harry grows up under the watchful tutelage (...surveillance) of Obadoor Stane and learns the hard way to never trust anyone, keep a false persona to deal with the public, and to always keep his heart closed.

Captain America throws a wrench in his plans.

Harry doesn't like Hermione Granger at first. This haughty, stubborn, narrow minded woman. She stands in a room as if she owns it, stares down her nose at him as if she knows better than he ever will. She has strict moral codes and high expectations she seems to hold for everyone, but especially him. He doesn't understand why his mother had been so obsessed with her.

"She was brilliant," Lily Potter had often told her son. "The world only knew her as Captain America. But only I knew how much she contributed to my own ideas. She had a gift. Like you and me."

He should have known then.

"How?" Harry splutters, blood staining his mouth as he lies injured on the battlefield. "You have magic too?"

"Stop moving so much. Can't you see I'm trying to heal you?" Hermione glares at him, pausing in her wand movements. "And of course, I do. I'm a _witch_ , after all."

* * *

He finds out her story later. That she was once a strange, awkward little girl who had never found her place in the world. That she had taken WWII as a chance for her to be someone, do something right for once. Permanent strengthening runes all over her body, a magically charmed shield, spells that no one saw her silently casting to weaken her opponents...It was all going so well. Until the Allies had found out what she really was and offered her a chance to collaborate with the research their own wizarding kind was doing.

"A time turner," The Captain smiles sadly when she tells him. "They said it would send me back in time if I was about to die. Instead it sent me here where everyone I ever loved is gone."

Harry realizes later who one of those people were when Luna Barnes—the girl who his mother had told him was as close to the Captain as a sister—lives after all. Experimented on, with her little bouts of insanity, but alive.

* * *

Even after he finds out the truth, they still argue. Being a wizard isn't so noteworthy in this world of superheroes and mutants, but there is so much _potential_ in magic.

"Haven't you thought of the _danger_ of mixing magic and technology?" She questions him, hands on her hips."Your mother was much more careful in her experiments than you."

He rolls his eyes. "I've had people like Obadoor Stane lecture me my whole life about what was the 'right thing to do' as a wizard. It would only be dangerous if I didn't know what I was doing. Anyway...You have no right to talk here, Miss-Magical-Tattoos-All-Over-My-Body."

She harrumphs and continues to lecture him on the moral philosophy of interfering with natural magic with man made technology, but he can't help but notice that she leaves his workshop with a tiny smile on her face.

* * *

He finds it strange how someone who is so rigid about moral codes and following rules and listening to authority can so easily switch around and advocate for the opposite.

"The Accords would turn us into slaves to authority. We would have no real rights." She frowns.

"I admit, I don't like being controlled. But there has to be _some_ order. Some accountability for the actions of the powerful." With a sigh, he tells her about his old mentor Obadoor and how the lack of any oversight and regulations had given him freedom to play with people's lives.

They often argue and debate endlessly. But at times like these, Hermione is quiet and serious.

She listens.

* * *

"I was wrong about you."

Hermione tells him much later. Many years. After wars have been fought and worlds have been saved several times over. After they've transitioned from prejudice to understanding, and reluctant friendship to love.

"About what?" Harry blearily opens his eyes. The hologram alarm clock says it's 3 AM.

She turns over in bed and regards him thoughtfully. "I remember thinking you were too cocky and sure of yourself. Too reckless and hotheaded. Never thinking things through, never taking anything seriously. I was wrong."

"You _still_ tell me I'm too reckless." He yawns.

Hermione ignores him. "But you have so much pressure on you, so much to uphold. You worry over every little thing when no one's watching. You break down over the life of one person you couldn't save. You put your life on the line fighting wars and monsters and you ask for nothing in return. When you could have done nothing at all. And still people point and judge you and criticize endlessly. I may be the Captain, but even I'm not held to such ridiculous standards. Why do you let people see you that way?"

He smiles then, fully awake. "Who am I?"

"Harry." She responds, confused.

"See, now most people would have responded with 'The Iron Man." He laughs. "Most people don't see who I really am beneath the iron mask. At this point, I don't need them to. You see me. And that's enough."

"Besides," He takes her hand and intertwines their fingers together. "I was wrong about you too."

**Author's Note:**

> This was an AU I made for the [HMS Harmony Discord](https://discord.gg/M8CE8N4) and their Wacky Wednesday event. The theme was "Marvel AU."
> 
> For some reason, my brain screamed at me: "DO A CIVIL WAR AU! DO IT!" so here we are. I always did like the potential of the Iron Man/ Captain America dynamic so this was fun to write with H/Hr.  
> People had different opinions on this. Someone told me that they would have liked to see the Iron Man and Captain roles reversed for H/Hr and I can see that happening as well. There's a lot of potential for H/Hr in Marvel AUs!


End file.
